CHOW Tape Model by Jatin Chowdhury

[TIMT]

Hi All,

Thanks for checking out my plugin! My tape modelling plugin was designed more as research project than as a plugin to be used for mixing/mastering etc. With that in mind, there were things that I could have "fixed", but chose not to, partly to show the limitations of certain modelling techniques. That said, hopefully in the next week or so I'll have some time to optimize my code a bit more, and upload some new builds. I'll update this thread when that happens.

Thanks,
Jatin

Hi Jatin,

Just came across this thread and checking out your tape model. Wow is all I can say, this is sounding great, look forward to the new build. Whilst the GUI might just be temporary and isn't the important factor; just want to say I really like it, nice and functional. This is exciting, thank you!

I can concur.this thing sounds absolutely phenomenal.i have no idea what people have been doing to attempt to model tape up to this point(mostly being way off with the exception of IK Multimedia's latest attempt,but it still lacks in areas where this mostly excels)this is the first one i would say is totally on the money for me.i'll be keeping a watchful eye on anything else you produce

[StoneyBCN]

@chowdsp

Congratulations, this tape sim is a powerful display of talent.

I'm very interested in running some personal experiments with your complex non-linearities, most specifically the modelled hysteresis and it's state-dependancies, but for whichever reason I just have a nightmare getting anything out of JUCE and VS. Can I please kindly ask if you would consider posting a compiled VST of any of those experiments? The text and video examples really go a long way, so thanks for those, but it would be all the more enlightening to be able to examine myself with my own test parameters to understand more about this very ineresting phenomena.

Thanks a lot for sharing your efforts with us! I've bookmarked your commercial product page and will keep an eye on things. All the best,

Stoney

[chowdsp]

@StoneyBCN, thanks for the comment. I've got Windows builds of the plugin up in GitHub: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Com ... master/Bin. Hopefully I can get Mac builds up soon as well.

Definitely check out the CopyEQ, I've been working on it a bunch lately.

[StoneyBCN]

@chowdsp - my gosh, what a gent! Thanks so much for the quick response on this. I was certainly interested in the CopyEQ idea, and also the non-linear feedback, allpass, and filters... Really, this is a very promising show of talent and I'm going to be keeping a keen eye on your work.

Please kindly consider setting up a paypal or Patreon for donations - I'm certain a lot of people would be keen to support your further developments and interesting write-ups.

Best and many thanks,

Stoney

[s28]

Alright folks, just finished with a build for version 2.0, I'd love to have y'all try it out! New builds are available on GitHub: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... /tag/2.0.0. I'm not currently able to "codesign" the mac builds, so I'm not sure if those will work, but the Windows builds should be good to go.

@mystran: Thanks for the ideas, definitely a bunch of things that are worth trying!

@s28: Glad you like it, the GUI is like that mostly because it was easy for me add knobs as I adjust the DSP. But yeah, it's functional and doesn't have any extra bells/whistles .

Thanks to everyone for showing their interest, I probably wouldn't have continued maintaining this project otherwise!

I like no extra bells and whistles personally. I tried out version 2 last night and it is sounding so good! The only thing I would ask is that you make the output gain have the ability to add more than 6db. Just means I can drop the input right down and crank the output without having to use the drive to get level. Makes it more flexible, other than that is an amazing piece of code, sounds great, cheers!

[nilhartman]

Extremely interested in those plugins... but neither Reaper 6 nor Live 10.1 can find the Tape one in my plugin folders (AU/VST/VST3). Mojave 10.14.6 here. Moreover, even if I can open the standalone, the plugin files seem to be only a few kilobits.
Any help would be tremendously appreciated, thanks !

[chowdsp]

@nilhartman
Thanks for letting me know! I've made some updated Mac builds that should be available here: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... Plugin/Bin (download the MacBuilds zip file). I haven't been able to do much testing on the Mac end, so I can't guarantee the AU version will work, but the VST3 build should. For the standalone version you may need to allow your computer to run apps from unknown developers. Let me know how it goes!

[nilhartman]

And now it works, thank you so much Jatin. I'm currently far from my monitors, and just have a recently set of (very nice) cans I'm not used to yet, so I've just been toying with it so far but it sounds super promising.

[StoneyBCN]

@chowdsp

Loving the bad component modelling series! It would be very interesting to have age, temp, and tolerance parameters all bundled into one filter, possibly the non-linear biquad. You've definitely got me looking much closer at how Juce and VS works - thanks for the inspirations!

I've noticed during analysis that the Hysteresis model (also in the tape) isn't much a fan of steady-state sines (lots of jumping around in odd ways), though it sounds really gorgeous on actual musical content. Just an observation.

Looking forward to the non-ideal op amp analysis! Thanks for your work!

[chowdsp]

@StoneyBCN

Thanks for the note! For the bad circuit modelling series, that's exactly the plan. After I figure out some of the non-ideal op-amp effects, I'm planning to do a model of the Sallen-Key LPF circuit that includes all the previously mentioned non-ideal parameters. After that I may try to do the same for a slightly more complicated and interesting circuit.

Yeah, the hysteresis model can be a bit rough on steady-state input, particularly for steady-state input with large energy. For best results, I'd recommend keeping the steady-state input level a bit lower unity (maybe -6 or -12 dB) and adjusting the saturation control to get the distortion that you want. I'm still toying a bit with the hysteresis model in hopes of getting a bit more stable steady-state response.

Thanks,
Jatin

[Obsolete236871]

Hi Jatin and community,

I really accustomed myself to using Chow Tape Model, great sound overall !

So, yesterday I played with some percussive material. When I played a Chimes sound, Chow Tape did not really like it! It seems that the hysteresis model is breaking when confronted with this kind of material. Can anyone test it (use any kind of chimes or closely related sound). On Chimes It sounds overly distorted even at relatively moderate settings, when the hysteresis is barely noticeable on more mid and low frequency kind of material. I guess it has to do with the interaction between the high frequency transients in the chimes and the model.

I'm using v2.0 of Chow Tape, Windows 64 bit VST, Ableton Live 10.1

Info to the mods: can you please move thread to "Effects" section?

[chowdsp]

Hi Izak,

Thanks for the note, glad you're enjoying the plugin! Definitely seems like an interesting behavior that I'll have to examine a bit more. Do you have an audio example of the input you were giving the plugin? That would be super helpful. Also, just out of curiosity, what amount of oversampling were you using. It would make sense that the issue with high frequency signal would be less bad as you use more oversampling.

Also just a heads up for those of you watching this thread: I'm happy to check on this thread and respond as needed, but it's a bit easier for me to stay organized if you could post bugs, etc. on the issues page for the plugin repository: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... del/issues

Thanks!

[Ronny Pries]

Thank you for sharing this with the world. Damn nice for DIY Double Tracking setups!

[TIMT]

Hi Jatin and community,

I really accustomed myself to using Chow Tape Model, great sound overall !

So, yesterday I played with some percussive material. When I played a Chimes sound, Chow Tape did not really like it! It seems that the hysteresis model is breaking when confronted with this kind of material. Can anyone test it (use any kind of chimes or closely related sound). On Chimes It sounds overly distorted even at relatively moderate settings, when the hysteresis is barely noticeable on more mid and low frequency kind of material. I guess it has to do with the interaction between the high frequency transients in the chimes and the model.

I'm using v2.0 of Chow Tape, Windows 64 bit VST, Ableton Live 10.1

Info to the mods: can you please move thread to "Effects" section?

I don't get what you did specifically to do this but i'm getting nothing that could be considered high frequency distortion on transients approaching nyquist with ChowTapeModel.what i do get though is some really bizarre but surprisingly useful intermodulated noise.maybe that's what you meant by distortion?cause im not hearing any clipping/waveshaping of any sort nor is there any visible in SPAN or an oscilloscope.i even made a similar "chimes"patch with a really long release just to see if this distortion would show up in the release of the harmonics and i came up with nothing other than what i mentioned above (intermodulated noise)

[Obsolete236871]

Hi Jatin and community,

I really accustomed myself to using Chow Tape Model, great sound overall !

So, yesterday I played with some percussive material. When I played a Chimes sound, Chow Tape did not really like it! It seems that the hysteresis model is breaking when confronted with this kind of material. Can anyone test it (use any kind of chimes or closely related sound). On Chimes It sounds overly distorted even at relatively moderate settings, when the hysteresis is barely noticeable on more mid and low frequency kind of material. I guess it has to do with the interaction between the high frequency transients in the chimes and the model.

I'm using v2.0 of Chow Tape, Windows 64 bit VST, Ableton Live 10.1

Info to the mods: can you please move thread to "Effects" section?

I don't get what you did specifically to do this but i'm getting nothing that could be considered high frequency distortion on transients approaching nyquist with ChowTapeModel.what i do get though is some really bizarre but surprisingly useful intermodulated noise.maybe that's what you meant by distortion?cause im not hearing any clipping/waveshaping of any sort nor is there any visible in SPAN or an oscilloscope.i even made a similar "chimes"patch with a really long release just to see if this distortion would show up in the release of the harmonics and i came up with nothing other than what i mentioned above (intermodulated noise)

I think you got hung up on my ambigious use of the term "distortion" initially. It's indeed rather some sort of noise in the lower to low mids segment of the frequency spectrum, not clipping, even though I wouldn't agree on your impression that this sort of noise was "surprisingly useful". Useful in what context and in what function? Definitely disagree on that, as much as I love the general sound of Chow Tape Model on most audio material.

Already added a more thorough issue report on GitHub that I would like to refer you to (just seen: Jatin has already responded):

https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... /issues/14